Cleone Toinette Powell Herron, 99, died peacefully with her family at her side on May 29, 2010, at Hester Care Center, Wesley Towers, in Hutchinson, Kansas.

She was born on October 12, 1910, in Findlay, Ohio. The second oldest of the nine children of James Garfield and Georgiana Conaway Powell, she lived her early days on the family farm in Plains, Kansas.

She married Ross Davis Herron on June 5, 1938.They shared sixty-one years of marriage, living in Hutchinson and also in Spearville on the Herron Brothers homestead farm. She was predeceased by Ross on August 28, 1999, by her daughter-in-law, Joanne Lorange and by two brothers, Ned and Don Powell and two sisters, Mildred Bond and Virginia Ross.

She is survived by her children, Elinor Herron Entz and husband Stewart, Topeka, Kansas, Shirley Herron Reed and husband, Don, Boulder, Colorado and Dr. Ronald Herron, Brookfield, Connecticut; by her grandchildren, Stephen and Michael Entz, Heather Entz Keys, Kristin Campbell Reed, Adam Reed and Jocelyn Lorange-Herron; by her great-grandchildren, Alexandra and Isabel Entz and Ryleigh Keys; by her sisters, Martha Gowens, Phoenix, Arizona, Wanda Harvey, Richmond, Indiana, Audrey Burdette, Wichita, Kansas, Iola Cadwallader, Oskaloosa, Iowa, and thirty nieces and nephews and dozens of grand nieces and nephews.

A 1929 graduate of Plains High School, Cleone attended Kansas City University where she earned a Lifetime Teaching Certificate. She taught in Kismet and Fowler and was a member of PEO, Chapter D.

Cleone lived a life of selfless caring. She was deeply committed to her faith and her church, Trinity United Methodist, serving in a variety of leadership and discipleship roles. She was a member of the Together Sunday School Class, sang in the Chancel Choir, served as a member of the Children's Work Committee of the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church from 1958-1961, and as a member of the Building Committee which oversaw the design and construction of the Christian Education Wing at Trinity. She was the Director of Christian Education at Trinity from 1962 until her retirement in 1972. Along with her husband, she served as Co-Coordinator of the Trinity Laotian Family Refugee Project which began in 1975. Working to create programs to meet the needs of all ages within the church, she founded the VIP Program for retired persons in 1968 and the Nursery Home Visitor Program in 1964. Her life of teaching reached beyond the walls of Trinity, as she regularly coordinated District Laboratory Schools and was a presenter of workshops at National United Methodist Church Conferences on Christian Education.

Throughout her life, she was an avid gardener with her flowers and vegetables adorning her table. She balanced her passion for natural foods with her signature specialties - baked breads and holiday peanut brittle. She was a craftswoman, accomplished in the fine arts of decoupage, vue d'optique, quilling, copper tooling and pastels. Always interested in legacies, she worked to collect and preserve historical church documents for Trinity and to maintain the genealogical collection of the James and Georgiana Powell Family. As a participant in the Life History Writing Project at Wesley Towers, she wrote rich personal essays chronicling her own life's journey.

Funeral service will be Thursday, June 3, 2010, at 10:30 a.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, with Reverend Jim Reed and Jim Rhaesa officiating. Friends may call at Elliott Mortuary from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday. The family will receive visitors from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Burial will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at Silent Land Cemetery, Spearville, Kansas with Jim Reed officiating.

Memorials may be made to Wesley Towers Good Samaritan Fund or the Boys and Girls Club of Hutchinson, in care of the mortuary.

Visit www.elliottmortuary.com to leave her family a condolence or remembrance.